Academy Award Winning Movies You Hated
- Thread starter Hockeyholic
- Start date
MakeTheGoalsLarger
Registered User
KallioWeHardlyKnewYe
Hey! We won!
- May 30, 2003
- 15,532
- 3,384
I see The English Patient being mentioned a lot. It's often brought up in these discussions - I think partly due to pop culture references such as from Seinfeld that bashed it as boring that have tarnished the film's reputation in the public eye. A lot of this criticism came from the 90s as sort of a backlash to how much the film was overrated at the time (for example due to the 12 Academy Award nominations and 9 Academy Awards it won). I think that it's one of those situations where its reputation for being boring and overrated has actually tipped the other way so that the film has become kind of overlooked and underrated.
There's certainly better Academy Award winners, but The English Patient is still a fine film - I'd even argue it's a great film - and there's certainly been worse winners. For example, within the last decade Green Book, The Shape of Water, Birdman, and the Artist are much worse films than The English Patient that have won Best Picture.
There's certainly better Academy Award winners, but The English Patient is still a fine film - I'd even argue it's a great film - and there's certainly been worse winners. For example, within the last decade Green Book, The Shape of Water, Birdman, and the Artist are much worse films than The English Patient that have won Best Picture.
John Price
Bet
- Sep 19, 2008
- 374,036
- 24,920
deadinthewater
Registered User
- Jan 14, 2012
- 10,069
- 520
Oh wow, really? I liked that one a lot. However, I did only see it once.
I did not care for La La Land one bit even though I really like Emma Stone.
"Hate" is a strong word that I would apply to only one film: American Beauty. I hated that enough that I haven't watched the Academy Awards since. Some others that I wouldn't say that I hated but that I really didn't like are Midnight Cowboy, The Deer Hunter, Gladiator, The Hurt Locker, Birdman and Moonlight.
Last edited:
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
Don't get the dislike for Birdman. Not a masterpiece and quite pleased with itself (especially considering who it's mocking) but I can think of a ton of nominated movies that are less interesting than that one.
Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 3,844
- 2,704
Exactly. I haven't seen most of them (and I have very little interest), and those I've seen were mostly underwhelming and not deserving of a best movie prize, but I don't hate any of them. I think the last 10 years had more interesting winners and surprises than the previous 50.
I've considered the Oscars as a joke for the longest time. I mean, Titanic as the best film of the year? and the contenders from 1997, As Good as It Gets? The Full Monty? Good Will Hunting? LA Confidential? Crap all around.... that year Egoyan did The Sweet Hereafter, Resnais did On connaît la chanson, Tsai-Ming Liang did The River, Korine did Gummo, and Haneke did Funny Games. At least the last few years had interesting films that could be considered on the international stage.
Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 3,844
- 2,704
Agreed, I like it a lot and consider it part of the more interesting winners from the last 10 years I was refering to.
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
It's got more personality than a lot of award winners. It's just one of those movies that got a lot of attention for what's least impressive about it (one-shot take) without folks noticing what's strong about it (balls, narrative mastery). Still, wouldn't sniff anywhere near my favorites.
John Price
Bet
- Sep 19, 2008
- 374,036
- 24,920
I will insist again that Titanic is a good movie if you actually rewatch it.
Over time we tend to mock the film but if you rewatch it (it was on HBO or Showtime a few months ago and I ended up purchasing it and rewatching it) it's an extremely good film. Bit long but still.
JackSlater
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2010
- 18,103
- 12,759
I actually watched or rewatched all of the Academy Award best pictures over the last few months, so some of these are pretty fresh for me.
Worst: Crash, You Can't Take It With You, That Broadway Melody, Tom Jones, Around the World in 80 Days, American Beauty, The Artist, The Shape of Water.
A lot of the winners were in the bad to not good range but not horrible. I'd call the movies I listed above horrible with Crash and You Can't Take It With You as the absolute worst.
Worst: Crash, You Can't Take It With You, That Broadway Melody, Tom Jones, Around the World in 80 Days, American Beauty, The Artist, The Shape of Water.
A lot of the winners were in the bad to not good range but not horrible. I'd call the movies I listed above horrible with Crash and You Can't Take It With You as the absolute worst.
Wow. You watched all 93 recently? That's very impressive. There are still a dozen or two that I need to get around to. I'd like to eventually be able to say that I've seen every one, like you. Maybe that would happen sooner if I'd quit wasting so much of my time on Worst Picture candidates.
Last edited:
Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 3,844
- 2,704
I didn't even say it wasn't good (I don't think it is, but I very much dislike Cameron so I might be biaised), I'm just saying it's laughable to mention it as "best film of the year", when it's clearly not on the level of most of what's done on other stages. I used Titanic because there was not even a contender that year, but the year before (The English Patient) or the year after (Shakespear in Love) are just as good examples - but 1996 and 1998 at least had a few decent contenders.
Nemesis Prime
Registered User
JackSlater
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2010
- 18,103
- 12,759
Yep, it was a covid lockdown project. I wouldn't recommend it other than for the novelty factor really, as I can't imagine that anyone really needs to watch Cavalcade, for instance, unless trying to see all the best pictures. A lot of the movies weren't good but there are some unexpected gems. It also gave me a better understanding of certain film eras because you really end up focused on which movies came out in which years and noticing various patterns or sudden shifts.
Unlimited Chequing
Christian Yellow
My friend has a friend who was working through all the Best Pictures and comparing them with the top grossing movies of that year. Not too sure how that went, but he was in the late 90's or early 2000's as of a few months ago so he's probably finished by now. I got the impression that he felt the top grossing movies were generally more entertaining, which really shouldn't be a surprise since those awards are more about marketing and self-promotion and that Academy Award winners were often more about hype and artsy-fartsy than entertainment.
Last edited:
